Kevin Wolf Quoted by Media on US Tech Co’s and Trump Admin’s Huawei Ban

Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf was quoted by various media outlets concerning efforts by U.S. technology sector companies to cope with the Trump administration’s ban on business with China’s Huawei Technologies.

In Corporate Counsel’s “US Businesses Testing Trump’s Trade Restrictions,” regarding attempts by U.S. companies to circumvent federal restrictions by not labeling goods as “American-made,” Wolf, a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, said these companies began shipping certain tech products to Huawei after analyzing the list of items subject to Export Administration Regulations.

He said, “If you have a foreign-made item that does not contain more than 25 percent controlled content, then it’s not subject to the regulations. A lot of semiconductors are not U.S. origin and the law doesn’t apply to foreign-made items that don’t contain U.S. origin content.”

Wolf added that companies that have stopped shipping products to Huawei “did the right thing because the penalties for getting this wrong are quite severe. It’s very normal for companies to stop shipments and do their analysis of what is legal and what is not so they don’t inadvertently make a mistake.”

In Barron’s “Trump and Xi Are About to Meet. How to Invest if Trade Talks Go Well — and if They Don’t.,” Wolf discussed the importance of the federal government defining clearly the language used in rules involving foreign direct investment and in bans of foreign telecommunications equipment.

He said that, until the language is made clear, tech companies are going to be in limbo: “The uncertainty about what is going to happen can be more harmful than the changes that come down.”